Pelosi: 'It isn't about me'

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claims to have the “overwhelming support” of the Democratic Caucus in her bid to be minority leader in the new Congress.

Her support is not unanimous, she says, but most members believe she’s not the cause of her party’s historic losses in the midterm elections.

Story Continued Below

In an interview with National Public Radio that aired Friday, Pelosi pointed to the high levels of unemployment as the driving factor behind the Democratic losses. By continuing as her party’s top leader in the House in the wake of the new Republican majority, she asserted, she can put it in the “strongest possible position” to create jobs and generally boost the nation’s still faltering economy.

“We didn’t lose the election because of me,” Pelosi said. “Under any circumstance, when you have 9.5 percent unemployment, any party that cannot turn that into political gain, should hang up the gloves. I said that before the election.”

Pelosi also blasted Republican intentions to roll back the new health care law, privatize Social Security and resist some of the major initiatives she pushed through the House. The new session beginning in January could paint an even starker difference between the two parties, she said. With Republicans controlling the House, she added, they might prove themselves to be a less satisfactory choice and better position Democrats for the 2012 elections.

“It isn’t about me. Maybe the Republicans will take a course of action that will solve problems — God bless them if they do. But, maybe, they will pursue what they have said,” Pelosi said. “The opportunity that is there is to have clarity. Maybe, they will be more eloquent in defining themselves than we could have ever been in defining them.”

The California congresswomen did, however, stand with President Barack Obama in expressing a willingness to re-examine some aspects of the health care law, citing the 1099 provision that deals with small businesses and taxation as a point of possible compromise. The president had mentioned the provision as open to debate in his White House press conference the day after the elections.

Still, Pelosi broke with the recent White House message on the Bush-era tax cuts, declaring her position has always been — and remains — that additional tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are fiscally irresponsible.

“Our position in the House is that we support the tax cut for everyone — but not an additional tax cut at the high end. It’s too costly,” Pelosi said. “Those tax cuts have been in effect for a very long time. They did not create jobs.”